For the fundamental task of estimating a phase on an arbitrary quantum process, a variant of Fourier-based quantum phase estimation is devised, which uses a probing signal of multiple entangled qubits. For simple practical implementation, each probing qubit can be applied and measured separately. When the qubits are optimally entangled, the Heisenberg enhanced scaling of the estimation efficiency is obtained. The phase estimation protocol can be applied equally in the presence of quantum phase noise. This enables us to investigate the impact of a generic quantum phase noise on the performance of the Fourier-based phase estimation. Especially it reveals that the strategy found optimal with no noise, gradually loses its optimality as the noise increases. Also, in contrast to the noise-free situation, with noise the presence of entanglement is no longer uniformly beneficial to estimation; there exists an optimal amount of entanglement to maximize the efficiency and above which it becomes detrimental. The results contribute to better knowledge of quantum noise and entanglement for quantum signal and information processing.
For the fundamental task of estimating a phase on an arbitrary quantum process, a variant of Fourier-based quantum phase estimation is devised, which uses a probing signal of multiple entangled qubits. For simple practical implementation, each probing qubit can be applied and measured separately. When the qubits are optimally entangled, the Heisenberg enhanced scaling of the estimation efficiency is obtained. The phase estimation protocol can be applied equally in the presence of quantum phase noise. This enables us to investigate the impact of a generic quantum phase noise on the performance of the Fourier-based phase estimation. Especially it reveals that the strategy found optimal with no noise, gradually loses its optimality as the noise increases. Also, in contrast to the noise-free situation, with noise the presence of entanglement is no longer uniformly beneficial to estimation; there exists an optimal amount of entanglement to maximize the efficiency and above which it becomes detrimental. The results contribute to better knowledge of quantum noise and entanglement for quantum signal and information processing.
The theory of quantum state estimation is exploited here to investigate the most efficient strategies for this task, especially targeting a complete picture identifying optimal conditions in terms of Fisher information, quantum measurement, and associated estimator. The approach is specified to estimation of the phase of a qubit in a rotation around an arbitrary given axis, equivalent to estimating the phase of an arbitrary single-qubit quantum gate, both in noise-free and then in noisy conditions. In noise-free conditions, we establish the possibility of defining an optimal quantum probe, optimal quantum measurement, and optimal estimator together capable of achieving the ultimate best performance uniformly for any unknown phase. With arbitrary quantum noise, we show that in general the optimal solutions are phase dependent and require adaptive techniques for practical implementation. However, for the important case of the depolarizing noise, we again establish the possibility of a quantum probe, quantum measurement, and estimator uniformly optimal for any unknown phase. In this way, for qubit phase estimation, without and then with quantum noise, we characterize the phase-independent optimal solutions when they generally exist, and also identify the complementary conditions where the optimal solutions are phase dependent and only adaptively implementable.
For parameter estimation from an [Formula: see text]-component composite quantum system, it is known that a separable preparation leads to a mean-squared estimation error scaling as [Formula: see text] while an entangled preparation can in some conditions afford a smaller error with [Formula: see text] scaling. This quantum superefficiency is however very fragile to noise or decoherence, and typically disappears with any small amount of random noise asymptotically at large [Formula: see text]. To complement this asymptotic characterization, here we characterize how the estimation efficiency evolves as a function of the size [Formula: see text] of the entangled system and its degree of entanglement. We address a generic situation of qubit phase estimation, also meaningful for frequency estimation. Decoherence is represented by the broad class of noises commuting with the phase rotation, which includes depolarizing, phase-flip and thermal quantum noises. In these general conditions, explicit expressions are derived for the quantum Fisher information quantifying the ultimate achievable efficiency for estimation. We confront at any size [Formula: see text] the efficiency of the optimal separable preparation to that of an entangled preparation with arbitrary degree of entanglement. We exhibit the [Formula: see text] superefficiency with no noise, and prove its asymptotic disappearance at large [Formula: see text] for any nonvanishing noise configuration. For maximizing the estimation efficiency, we characterize the existence of an optimum [Formula: see text] of the size of the entangled system along with an optimal degree of entanglement. For nonunital noises, maximum efficiency is usually obtained at partial entanglement. Grouping the [Formula: see text] qubits into independent blocks formed of [Formula: see text] entangled qubits restores at large [Formula: see text] a nonvanishing efficiency that can improve over that of [Formula: see text] independent qubits optimally prepared. Also, one inactive qubit included in the entangled probe sometimes stands as the most efficient setting for estimation. The results further attest with new characterizations the subtlety of entanglement for quantum information in the presence of noise, showing that when entanglement is beneficial, maximum efficiency is not necessarily obtained by maximum entanglement but instead by a controlled degree and finite optimal amount of it.
We exploit the theory of quantum estimation to investigate quantum state estimation in the presence of noise. The quantum Fisher information is used to assess the estimation performance. For the qubit in Bloch representation, general expressions are derived for the quantum score and then for the quantum Fisher information. From this latter expression, it is proved that the Fisher information always increases with the purity of the measured qubit state. An arbitrary quantum noise affecting the qubit is taken into account for its impact on the Fisher information. The task is then specified to estimating the phase of a qubit in a rotation around an arbitrary axis, equivalent to estimating the phase of an arbitrary single-qubit quantum gate. The analysis enables determination of the optimal probing states best resistant to the noise, and proves that they always are pure states but need to be specifically matched to the noise. This optimization is worked out for several noise models important to the qubit. An adaptive scheme and a Bayesian approach are presented to handle phase-dependent solutions.
It is suggested that computers exploiting quantum phenomena can solve tasks with an efficiency surpassing that achievable by classical computers. One example of this quantum advantage arises in the task of phase estimation. Here, an unknown eigenvalue of a unitary evolution is estimated, a critical subroutine for many quantum algorithms and quantum metrology protocols. For a fixed amount of resources, the utilisation of quantum coherence and entanglement can lead to a quadratic increase in precision of the final estimate compared to classical statistical limits. In systems affected by depolarising noise, including current quantum hardware, this improvement becomes a constant factor. While numerous phase estimation algorithms have been proposed claiming to achieve these theoretical limits, the lack of well-defined criteria for both precision and resource utilisation casts doubt on these results. Further issues arise due to a lack of point identification (the existence of multiple equally likely estimates) that some algorithms have. I aim to address these issues in this thesis. I employ statistical inference, the theoretical foundation for interpreting any quantum measurement, in order to find rigorous definitions for precision and resource use. By combining these definitions with previous work in the field of quantum metrology, I am able to derive theoretical precision limits that one can hope to achieve. I then outline several phase estimation algorithms that can achieve these limits in different contexts. These algorithms that I describe are split into three major groups. Algorithms in the first group focus on the process of point identification; one set of measurements provides a precise estimate of the unknown phase before an additional set of measurements removes any ambiguities present. This second set of measurements can be either decided before any measurement is taken or during measurements in an iterative fashion. I show that the balancing of resources used in each set of measurements can lead to optimally scaling precision both with and without depolarising noise. These algorithms are based upon two of my peer-reviewed articles, [Phys. Rev. A 106, 062615 (2022)] and [Phys. Rev. A 109, 042412 (2024)]. The second group of algorithms that I introduce use the principles of Bayesian experimental design. Here, previous measurement outcomes are used to select future measurements recursively. These algorithms require large classical computing times to select each measurement but boast high precision in certain metrics. The final group of algorithms exploit the oscillating nature of phases by using a discrete Fourier transform (DFT). The DFT can be implemented using either classical or quantum hardware, the latter of which leads to the famous quantum phase estimation algorithm (QPEA). In this thesis, I show that the QPEA performs worse than some classical precision limits. However, I also suggest some modifications to the QPEA circuit that can lead to optimal precision scaling. These results and modifications are described in one of my articles awaiting publication [arXiv:2505.00764].
The fundamental quantum information processing task of estimating the phase of a qubit is considered. Following quantum measurement, the estimation efficiency is evaluated by the classical Fisher information which determines the best performance limiting any estimator and achievable by the maximum likelihood estimator. The estimation process is analyzed in the presence of decoherence represented by essential quantum noises that can affect the qubit and belonging to the broad class of unital quantum noises. Such a class especially contains the bit-flip, the phase-flip, the depolarizing noises, or the whole family of Pauli noises. As the level of noise is increased, we report the possibility of non-standard behaviors where the estimation efficiency does not necessarily deteriorate uniformly, but can experience non-monotonic variations. Regimes are found where higher noise levels prove more favorable to estimation. Such behaviors are related to stochastic resonance effects in signal estimation, shown here feasible for the first time with unital quantum noises. The results provide enhanced appreciation of quantum noise or decoherence, manifesting that it is not always detrimental for quantum information processing.
A generic qubit unitary operator affected by quantum noise is duplicated and inserted in a coherently superposed channel, superposing two paths offered to a probe qubit across the noisy unitary, and driven by a control qubit. A characterization is performed of the transformation realized by the superposed channel on the joint state of the probe-control qubit pair. The superposed channel is then specifically analyzed for the fundamental metrological task of phase estimation on the noisy unitary, with the performance assessed by the Fisher information, classical or quantum. A comparison is made with conventional estimation techniques and also with a quantum switched channel with indefinite causal order recently investigated for a similar task of phase estimation. In the analysis here, a first important observation is that the control qubit of the superposed channel, although it never directly interacts with the unitary being estimated, can nevertheless be measured alone for effective estimation, while discarding the probe qubit that interacts with the unitary. This property is also present with the switched channel but is inaccessible with conventional techniques. The optimal measurement of the control qubit here is characterized in general conditions. A second important observation is that the noise plays an essential role in coupling the control qubit to the unitary, and that the control qubit remains operative for phase estimation at very strong noise, even with a fully depolarizing noise, whereas conventional estimation and the switched channel become inoperative in these conditions. The results extend the analysis of the capabilities of coherently controlled channels which represent novel devices exploitable for quantum signal and information processing.